Passamezzo antico

The passamezzo antico was a ground bass or chord progression popular during the Italian Renaissance and known throughout Europe in the 16th century^[2]. The progression is a variant of the double tonic: its major mode variant is known as the passamezzo moderno.

The sequence consists of two phrases as follows: (For an explanation of this notation see Chord progression)

In the key of A minor this gives:

The romanesca is a variant of the passamezzo antico where the first chord is chord III (ie, a C in A minor). A famous example is "Greensleeves".

The passamezzo antico chord changes are found, knowingly or not, in modern popular music culture: Carrie Underwood's debut album Some Hearts has two examples, "Before he Cheats" (a big US hit in 2006) and "Starts with Goodbye". "Stairway to Heaven" by Led Zeppelin is essentially a variant of the progression.

Sources

1. ^ Apel, Willi (1997). The History of Keyboard Music to 1700, p.263. Trans. Tischler, Hans. ISBN 0253211417.
2. ^ van der Merwe, Peter. 1989. Origins of the Popular Style: The Antecedents of Twentieth-Century Popular Music, p.207. Oxford: Clarendon Press. ISBN 0-19-316121-4.